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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

With what looks to be some nice early spring weather plus a diverse selection of jazz and creative music on local stages, it's a good week in St. Louis to get out to a club or concert hall and hear some live sounds. Let's go to the highlights...

Tonight, the New Orleans funk/jazz/hip-hop ensemble Galactic returns to the Pageant for what's becoming an annual visit around this time of year. Their special guests on this tour include singer Cory Glover of Living Color and trombonist Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band, with jam-rock band Orgone opening.

Also tonight, pianist Vijay Iyer is back in St. Louis with his trio to begin a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Iyer's new album Accelerando is out this week, and for more about that, plus some recent video clips of him and his trio in action, check out this video showcase post from a couple of weeks ago. Also worth reading: Pamela Espelund of the blog Bebopified has a report here on Iyer's recent residency at Minneapolis' Walker Art Center; and NPR's A Blog Supreme just ran an interesting item analyzing Iyer's covers - or as he likes to call them, "re-versions" - of works originally composed by others.

On Friday, saxophonist, composer and former St. Louisan Oliver Lake will be back home for the opening reception for an exhibit of his artwork being presented by the Nu-Art Series at the Metropolitan Gallery, 2936 Locust St downtown. Although it's not billed as a performance, Lake will read some of his poetry and play some solo sax at the event, which is free and open to the public.

Also on Friday, drummer Montez Coleman, who's spent a lot of time on the road in recent years with trumpeter Roy Hargrove and others, is back home for a spell and will lead a quartet at Robbie's House of Jazz; and saxophonist Austin Cebulski's quartet, with drummer Jerry Mazzuca, guitarist Mason Baron and bassist Ryan Chamberlain, will play the Cigar Inn.

On Saturday afternoon, trumpeter Eddie Henderson will be in town, teaming up with saxophonist Freddie Washington for a matinee concert presented by the Nu-Art Series at the Metropolitan Gallery. The two men, billed as "Doctors That Play" in recognition of Henderson's medical degree and Washington's Ph.d, will be accompanied by bassist Bob Deboo, drummer Gary Sykes and pianist Ptah Williams.

The biggest show of the week, however, happens on Sunday night, when the legendary pianist and composer Herbie Hancock(pictured) will be here to play at the Touhill Performing Arts Center under the auspices of Jazz St. Louis. This is Hancock's first visit to St. Louis in nearly seven years, and according to this review of his show last week in Washington DC, fans can expect a setlist that emphasizes his funk material from the 1970s and beyond. For much more about Hancock, and videos featuring extended live versions of some of his most famous compositions, check out this post from last Saturday.

(If you have calendar items, band schedule information, news tips, links, or anything else you think may be of interest to StLJN's readers, please email the information to stljazznotes (at) yahoo (dot) com. If you have photos, MP3s or other digital files, please send links, not attachments.)